Is it being overhyped?
I fearlessly predict that, as with any other experience, some will be underwhelmed, and others will have their expectations exceeded.
In related news, tired of waiting, and fearing that they won’t get to the (arbitrary) von Karman line, some Virgin Galactic customers are demanding refunds.
[Update a few minutes later]
Richard Branson’s credibility is collapsing in the media.
[Afternoon update]
A question for the ladies: Is the ad sexist, or scintillating?
Jeff Foust has the story on last week’s commercial space announcements.
It was the usual post-communist leftie march. That is, it was a petit-bourgeois re-enactment of meaningless ritual that passes for serious politics among those too inexperienced, too emotionally excited or too poorly read and too unpracticed at self-reflection or political analysis to know or perhaps care how futile and tired the conventional march has become. Crazed grouplets of anti-capitalist movements trying to fan the embers of Marxism back to life, gender and transgender groups with their own spin on climate, earnest eco-warriors, publicity-seeking hucksters, adrenalin junkies, college kids wanting a taste of the venerable tradition of public protest, and, as always, a great many people who don’t think that burning marijuana adds to the world’s CO2 load, marched down Manhattan’s streets. The chants echoed through the skyscraper canyons, the drums rolled, participants were caught up in a sense of unity and togetherness that some of them had never known. It was almost like politics, almost like the epochal marches that have toppled governments and changed history ever since the Paris mob stormed the Bastille.
Almost. Except street marches today are to real politics what street mime is to Shakespeare. This was an ersatz event: no laws will change, no political balance will tip, no UN delegate will have a change of heart. The world will roll on as if this march had never happened. And the marchers would have emitted less carbon and done more good for the world if they had all stayed home and studied books on economics, politics, science, religion and law. Marches like this create an illusion of politics and an illusion of meaningful activity to fill the void of postmodern life; the tribal ritual matters more than the political result.
In other news, King Canute sits on the beach, against the tide. MT @mrford0: 311,000 march against Climate Change in NYC #climatemarch
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 22, 2014
Eric Berger has Part 4 of his series up now. It’s about New Space, and NASA’s wary relationship with it. It seems like he’ll have plenty for a book by the time he finishes.
…is not settled:
…the crucial, unsettled scientific question for policy is, “How will the climate change over the next century under both natural and human influences?” Answers to that question at the global and regional levels, as well as to equally complex questions of how ecosystems and human activities will be affected, should inform our choices about energy and infrastructure.
But—here’s the catch—those questions are the hardest ones to answer. They challenge, in a fundamental way, what science can tell us about future climates.
Yup. The 97% “nonsensus” is multiple strawmen, because all it ever meant, to the degree that it wasn’t just BS, was that scientists agree that there is a greenhouse effect and that therefore human-generated carbon emissions can affect climate. Beyond that, there is no consensus.
Over at National Review. I obviously take issue with this:
Boeing has walked away with the biggest share ($4.2 billion) of the money, as its design was further along than that of the SpaceX proposal and, in the opinion of NASA’s leadership, has the best chance of meeting the schedule.
I’ve sent them a response. If they don’t run it, I’ll do it myself at Ricochet.
[Update a while later]
OK, my response is up at The Corner.
I hate the phrase, but everyone is using it. I will continue to wage war on it, but meanwhile…
Newt is really unhappy about the Boeing selection. And he bashes SLS as a bonus.
[Update a while later]
Sierra Nevada has issued a statement. Not exactly a full-throated determination to move ahead regardless.
I’m reading it now. It starts out with a nice brief history of space stations in general and of the ISS itself. Apparently it says that commercial crew will cost more than Soyuz. I want to see the basis of that statement.
[Update a while later]
“Although the risks involved in space exploration are apparent and subject to mitigation,
NASA cannot fully eliminate them.”
Someone should write a book about that. Oh, wait.